Washington State Documents

Objectives

To establish guidelines for the scope of the Washington State Publications collection, and to set guidelines for the acquisition of new materials and the evaluation and physical maintenance of the collection.

Purpose

The Collins Memorial Library at University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, will collect, organize, and provide access to Washington State publications to support the educational, research, and service programs of the university. Consideration will also be given to the needs of the community at large, in accordance with our responsibilities as a Selective Washington State Depository Library, as defined in the Revised Code of Washington. In this regard, the Library will provide free access and provide assistance to the public for state documents received through the state depository system.

General Collection Guidelines

Language(s) of Publication: English is the primary language of the collection. Some Spanish-language and Asian-languages materials are also distributed by the Washington State Publication Center, and these are retained in the collection when appropriate.

Chronological Periods Covered: Although no specific chronological exclusions are imposed on the collection, emphasis is on current materials. Retrospective materials may be collected, whenever possible, or accepted as gifts, to fill in gaps in existing holdings, or in response to specific requests.

Geographic Areas Covered: The Washington State documents collection consists of statewide publications. Excluded from the collection, as a rule, are the publications of regional governmental organizations, and those of city and county governments. From time to time, in response to faculty requests, the government documents librarian will collect, organize, and provide access to city or county publications for use in specific course assignments. Otherwise, regional or local governmental publications will customarily be acquired by the departmental liaison and/or faculty, and cataloged and classified for the Reference or general circulating collections.

Collection Size: Because of the comparatively low volume of Washington state publications from year to year, no restrictions are imposed on the size of the collection.

Types of Materials and Formats

Treatment of Subject(s): No specific subject restrictions are imposed on the collection, although publications selected (as distinct from those automatically distributed to all Selective State Depository Libraries) will ordinarily be those materials in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities which best serve UPS' curricular needs. Washington nondepository publications are requested by the government depository librarian, departmental liaison, or faculty.

Forms of Materials: No restrictions are imposed on the format of materials collected.

Reference Materials: Reference materials include those which provide information, such as statistical sources or directories, and materials which facilitate access to the collection, such as indexes and bibliographies. Both governmentally and commercially published compendia, handbooks, directories, yearbooks, and indexes (in print and electronic formats) are examples of reference materials.

Publication Date: Certain state publications contain information relevant for only brief periods of time. Such materials will be removed from the collection as they are superseded by more current information. All other publications must be retained for two years, in accordance with the Selective State Depository Library Agreement. Publications will be reevaluated periodically to determine their continuing usefulness in the collection.

Organization of the Collection: Within the documents collection, all State publications are arranged by Washington State Library call numbers. Those publications which are integrated into the library's Reference and general circulating collections (approximately 5% of State depository receipts) receive full cataloging, and are arranged by Library of Congress call numbers.

All publications received from the Washington State Publication Center are initially processed for the Washington State Publications collection. Government documents librarian in conjunction with the reference coordinator and/or liaison librarian decides upon exceptions to this policy when appropriate.

Selection of Materials

As a participant in the Washington State document depository program, the library automatically receives the documents distributed under this program. There is no selectivity and the format is primarily in paper. The library is designated as a "select depository" in the Washington State document depository program and automatically receives a core list of publications (see attached) distributed plus all nontechnical significant state publications.

Nondepository Publications: Publications not received as "automatically-distributed" depository items, replacements, and government documents librarian will request added copies directly from the appropriate sources. Trade publications (i.e., commercially published reference tools, for the most part) are ordered through Acquisitions.

Out-of-Print Publications: Those publications which do not exceed length restrictions (according to nationally-established interlibrary loan standards) will be requested through Interlibrary Loan, and photocopied for inclusion in the library's holdings (in general, copyright restrictions do not apply to state publications).

Gifts: The documents librarian does not solicit gifts, although those received that do not duplicate current holdings will be considered for inclusion in the collection, and added at the discretion of the government documents librarian. Gifts identified as duplicates will be processed (through the Acquisitions) in the same manner as all other gifts received by the Library.

Duplication: In general, only one copy is received and retained.

Preservation: State government publications receive the same care as commercially published materials. Binding, when found to be necessary, will be handled as part of routine procedures already established in the Acquisitions Services unit.

Evaluation: The government documents librarian reviews, evaluates, and decides to retain or withdraw publications, in consultation with the Reference librarian and the appropriate liaison librarians.

Core List for Selective Depositories

RCW
WAC
WA State Register
Governor Commission Repts
Legislative Budget Committee Repts
Energy Packets
AIDS/Health Pubs
Dept Ecology Pubs

Periodicals

Employment & Payrolls
Income Assistance